The present invention relates to vehicle seat assemblies and, more particularly, to a vehicle seat assembly having a pair of longitudinal slide units for sliding movement in a longitudinal direction and a pair of lateral slide units for sliding movement in a lateral direction.
In general, a vehicle seat assembly is constructed of a seat body composed of a seat cushion and a seat back standing upright at a rear end of the seat cushion for adjustable rotating movement in a longitudinal direction (fore and aft direction). The seat cushion, which forms a part of the seat body, is supported on a floor panel of a vehicle body through a pair of longitudinal slide units (fore and aft slide units). Thus, the seat body is enabled to move at adjusted positions in the fore and aft direction of the vehicle body, thereby enabling various modifications in a layout of the vehicle seat assembly in a vehicle compartment.
With such a pair of fore and aft slide units of the vehicle seat assembly, it has been a usual practice for the units to be constructed of a pair of longitudinally spaced lower rails fixedly secured to the floor panel of the vehicle body, and a pair of upper rails fixedly secured to the seat body. As seen in FIGS. 3A and 3B, a pair of longitudinally spaced, front and rear lateral slide units 1 are fixedly located on the floor panel 4 of the vehicle body. Each of the lateral slide units 1 includes a stationary rail 3 fixed to the floor panel 4 and a movable rail 5 held in sliding engagement with the same. Both distal ends of the front and rear movable rails 5 of the lateral slide units 1 are connected to laterally spaced lower rails 8 of a pair of laterally spaced fore and aft slide units 7. The pair of laterally spaced lower rails 8 carry a pair of laterally spaced upper rails 9 to guide the same for sliding movement in the fore and fore direction, with a seat frame 10 of the seat cushion being carried by brackets 9a secured to the upper rails 9.
However, the presence of the lateral slide units 1 and the fore and aft slide units 7 used for such a vehicle seat assembly needs the lateral slide units 1, below the fore and aft slide units 7, which are laterally elongated. As a result, the seat cushion has an excessively increased height and such a structure needs an increased occupying area of the floor panel 4 of the vehicle body, with a resultant increased restriction of a usable area of the floor panel 4 of the vehicle body. Further, when increasing the amount of sliding movement in the fore and aft direction, an adverse affect appears in that the lateral slide units 1 are exposed below the seat cushion. Also, the vehicle seat assembly is inevitably increased in weight, providing a difficulty in obtaining a structure with a low manufacturing cost.
The present invention has been made with the above view and has an object to provide a vehicle seat assembly which has a lowered height of a seat cushion, which has a reduced occupying area of a floor panel of a vehicle body, which effectively precludes lateral slide units from being exposed below the seat cushion, which enables easy installation of the lateral slide units even in a case where the floor panel of the vehicle body has stepped areas due to wheel houses or the like, which is low in weight and which is low at manufacturing cost.
According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a vehicle seat assembly which comprises: a seat frame supporting a seat cushion; a pair of lateral slide units longitudinally spaced to each other and coupled to the seat frame for lateral sliding movement of the seat cushion; and a pair of longitudinal slide units laterally spaced to each other and adapted to be fixedly secured to a floor panel of a vehicle body for longitudinal sliding movement of the seat cushion. The lateral slide units is coupled to the longitudinal slide units. Also, the lateral slide units include front and rear stationary rails, which are longitudinally spaced to each other and supported with the longitudinal slide units, and front and rear movable rails, which are longitudinally spaced to each other and held in engagement with the stationary rails for the lateral sliding movement of the seat cushion, respectively, and the front and rear movable rails of the lateral slide units form a part of the seat frame.
Other and further features, advantages, and benefits of the present invention will become more apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the following drawings.